The Government Technology Insider Podcast

According to Deloitte Center for Government Insight, there were more than 163 ransomware attacks that targeted local and county governments, which resulted in nearly $1.8 million being paid to cybercriminals, and tens of millions of dollars lost in recovery costs. And with attacks on the rise, federal agencies need to dedicate more resources to cyber risk management.

Recently, we spoke with Pat Mungovan, Senior Vice President, Oracle North America Public Sector, about digital transformation, pandemic response, and on being cloud smart. He shared that when it comes to the pandemic response, 2020 has shown that enterprise data management plays a critical role in being the foundation for overall preparedness.

What started with the Cloud First strategy in 2010, and evolved into other critical mandates such as the Modernizing Government Technology Act (MGT Act), the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), and the White House's Cloud Smart Strategy, the underlying premise of government IT success is delivering the mission more effectively with a stronger customer focus. Whether it’s being Cloud Smart or another deployment model, the key is developing the right solution for the agency’s environment – especially for delivering the mission and services remotely. In the ever-growing hybrid environment, security, with an underlying enterprise data management approach, is paramount. These were the key themes from a recent Government Technology Insider podcast interview with Pat Mungovan, Senior Vice President, Oracle North America Public Sector. Mungovan is a seasoned Oracle executive who moved into this role in May 2020. Prior to this, he led Oracle’s North America Cloud strategy and business development group.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, government agencies needed to be highly nimble in enabling remote workforces, which continues on today.According to a recent Government Business Council survey, approximately three-quarters of federal workers remain in telework status, and 60 percent expect to continue remote working for at least another six months. “This dynamic poses two primary challenges: the Human Element and the cybersecurity aspects,” explained John Grim, Head of Research at the Verizon Threat Research Advisory Center. “Threat actors are well aware of the potential they have here. Sensitizing employees to threat actor tactics – email phishing, fake websites, and fraud tactics – coupled with using VPNs, multi-factor authentication, and a strong password policy among other measures – can go a long way in reducing threat actor impact.”

Through its partnership with Verizon and Qualcomm, Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar in San Diego is the first military base to test and deploy Verizon 5G in the areas of energy management, connected vehicles, drones, and base security. The path to this 5G deployment required a nimble, and highly collaborative approach to bring this innovative communications technology to life.

Lt. Col. Brandon Newell, Director, SoCal Tech Bridge for NavalX; Steve Lamb, Director of Network Field Engineering at Verizon; and Paul Guckian, Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm, all explore how 5G was made possible at the Miramar base.

There is a massive ecosystem of technology solution providers, contractors, and consultants that help government agencies overcome their largest problems and embrace the right technologies for their missions. This marketplace is crowded, and ever-expanding, as new and emerging technology companies enter the industry. But it also frequently experiences consolidation as larger, established brands look to bolster their workforces, portfolios, and solution offerings by acquiring other companies. It's safe to say that the constantly shifting nature of the government contracting industry can be confusing and hard to follow for many agencies. And the crowded, congested marketplace of companies that sell to and service the government can make it exceptionally difficult for new and emerging companies to get a foothold. For companies to stand out in this crowded market - and for agencies to get their hands on the latest, most cutting-edge technologies - enterprises that sell solutions to the government need a strong brand and corporate identity. And that’s exactly what the fourth and final episode of The Public Sector Primer podcast series focuses on. Government Technology Insider (GTI) kicked off this four-part podcast series earlier this month intending to provide a “how to” guide for public sector marketers and salespeople to help them better understand how to solve the complicated puzzle of government acquisitions and sales. Partnering with an experienced public sector sales and marketing expert – Tom Mahoney of TD SYNNEX Public Sector – the series has explored how to identify opportunities within the government, and leverage marketing campaigns to generate engagement and demand. In this ultimate episode, Tom shares brand-building best practices and lessons learned from his recent work helping to rebrand DLT Solutions to TD SYNNEX Public Sector following the company’s acquisition by TD SYNNEX.

Earlier this month, we kicked off a four-part podcast series entitled, The Public Sector Primer. This series was intended as a “how to” guide for public sector marketers and salespeople to help them better understand how to solve the complicated puzzle of government acquisitions and sales. And this is an important topic. The digital transformation that is making our government more effective and efficient can only progress if the IT decision-makers within the agencies that comprise our government knows what’s out there. They can only embrace technologies that they know exist. They can only develop requirements that use cutting-edge technologies if they know what’s possible. In the first two episodes of The Public Sector Primer, we explored how public sector marketers and salespeople can identify the opportunities, and how they could create effective themed campaigns designed to engage with IT decision-makers in the government. In our third episode, we sit down again with Tom Mahoney of TD SYNNEX Public Sector to explore how to transition engagement with government decision-makers into demand for a product or solution.

Public sector marketers and salespeople play an important role – educating government IT leaders and senior decision-makers on the exciting new technologies and innovations that are transforming how organizations operate and fundamentally redefining what is possible. But, how can these public sector salespeople and marketers navigate the complicated government acquisition process? How do they cut through the noise and clutter of the crowded government IT marketplace to ensure that truly innovative solutions get into the hands of government employees and warfighters? The Government Technology Insider recently sat down with government marketing wunderkind, Tom Mahoney of TD SYNNEX Public Sector, to help answer some of those questions. In our four-part podcast series, The Public Sector Primer, we take deep dives into how marketers and salespeople can solve the government acquisition and sales puzzle. In our first episode, we discussed how companies can identify business opportunities and agency requirements. In our second episode, we asked Tom to elaborate on how IT solution providers can build effective marketing campaigns for their solutions, and how to measure the impact of those campaigns.

One of the major themes that we’ve heard across the government – from federal agencies to state and local governments, to the U.S. military – is the need for modernization and digital transformation. Government organizations of all sizes and with incredibly different missions have all been evaluating and embracing new, transformative technologies. This digital transformation is intended to help them improve operations, increase efficiency, and meet mission requirements despite reduced resources, tight budgets, and other operational limitations. But government agencies and military organizations can only evaluate and adopt the technologies that they know about. They can only craft solution requirements if they truly understand what’s possible. And one of the most effective ways for government decision-makers to stay on top of the ever-shifting and constantly evolving technology sector is to have industry partners that are actively working to demonstrate their innovative solutions and latest technologies. In this way, government sales and marketing professionals play an essential role in getting the latest tools into the hands of government agencies and military organizations that can most benefit from them. But that’s often easier said than done. The government sales and acquisition process are notoriously convoluted and complicated – with confusing, resource-draining steps and requirements that can be a challenge for even the largest, most successful company. To help government sales and marketing professionals, the Government Technology Insider has partnered with a government sales and marketing savant – Thomas Mahoney of TD SYNNEX Public Sector – to record a very special instructional podcast series. This four-part series entitled, “The Public Sector Primer,” is designed to help connect government sales and marketing people to the public sector agencies and organizations that would greatly benefit from the solutions that they offer. In part one of The Public Sector Primer, they focus on how government sales and marketing professionals can learn about opportunities and identify an agency’s needs and mission requirements.